Oh, to live by the beach...

This blog isn't over folks! I know, I know you thought once I left Rome in all its glory that I'd be completely finished with this here travel blog.

But I'm not done traveling, and I hope never to be!

Today was a superb day.

A superb day in... L.A.!

I decided to go to LA for spring break to visit my dear old friend Tara, and to actually travel to Cali (and soak up some sun while I'm at it...) I was expecting to have a pretty relaxing first night, and it started off pretty chill with a run to the local grocery store. We then decided to meet up with Clarence and Tyler (friends from school who happened to vacationing in LA too!) and I assumed we'd just drive/chill around. We decide to take a random trip to Santa Monica.

*insert picture here*

feel free to be disappointed in me for not bringing my camera. I'll steal pictures from Clarence eventually...

The night was filled with going to the lounges/bars at extremely fancy hotels at Tyler's request (he's a hotel/restaurant and management major so he was enthralled) and feeling incredibly out of place, walking along the santa monica pier, ocean ave and promenade, and finding the sweeetest place around midnightish called Barney's Beanery (dad I know you're gonna look it up, I'll save you some time :http://www.barneysbeanery.com ), which was the hugest bar and grill I've ever seen decked out with a lot of random and awesome vintage deco including a lot of Iowa Hawkeye memorabilia. That almost caused us to leave, but we fought the urge. I somehow managed on a full stomach to scarf down a belgain waffle and a side of bacon, and I regret none of it.

That fabulous yesterday led into an even more amazing day.


4:30AM - EARTHQUAKE! No kidding. It was pretty small, but kindof awesome. It sparked my memory a bit from Geo 101 about those plates-a-shiftin. Tara slept right through it, and she was really angry that in her 2 years of living here she has never been through (or well been awake for) an earthquake and I in less than 24 hours managed to experience one... I don't know how she slept through it though, everything was...well...quaking.

7:00AM - WAKE UP!

7:30AM - no really, wake up...we're gonna be late for....

8:30AM - phew, we made it in time for Dr. PHIL!!! Haha. We were part of the liiive audience. They sure do make you clap alot. It's pretty cool to see shows behind the scenes. I would say watch tomorrow's show to see if I'm on it somewhere, but it was a really depressing topic about some guy that raped and murdered people and kept getting away with it, and frankly the show could have been wrapped up in about 5 minutes.

11:30AM - found out I got the internship offer that I really wanted for a place in Boston! GOD IS SO GOOD! AAAHH so excited. So to answer some questions, I know what I'll be doing after graduation. I'll be movin' to Boston!

2:00PM - Venice Beach? Here we come...

3:00 PM - thrifting in the venice area? yes please. found this awesome shop with slightly used designer type stuff from all over. ofcourse, I had to indulge a little bit to celebrate the internship!

4:00 PM - Laying out on the beach, soakin up the sun, platonic walks on the beach, people watchin, ridin out some waves... It doesn't get much better than that. I'd love to surf, but might save that for a trip where my wallet wasn't weeping as much...

9:00 PM - Don't wanna be late for Poetry night hosted by Shihan!

9:10 PM - okay so we're late...

9:30 PM - WHERE IS THIS PLACE!

9:45 PM - LA, your signage is terrible.

10:30 PM - there's a second show? thank God! There was some great poems, even Shihan performed and Dante Basco (aka Rufio from hook, my crush from maybe 7th grade, whatevs. Also, didn't realize it was HIM until after I met him...) made a little appearance and dropped a poem then randomly Will.I.Am. from black eyed peas shows up?!!!? so crazy! mind you this a pretty intimate show of less than 100... He read this really odd and out of place poem about how much technology is taking over our lives and communication...but he was reading it from his iphone...
Will had probably the worst "poem" of all but it was cool to see him and I said hi to him after the show!

Also, this chick Andy Allo played at the show and she was awesome! bought her cd. very cool voice, and sweet guitar player too. haven't listened to the cd yet, but check her out! http://www.andyallo.com/Home.html


okay so that is all for now. It's far past the bed time. Got to get up early tomorrow and hike!

Love Love Love,

Pj

Ciao, Roma...

Time goes by so quickly.

It really shouldn't be surprised anymore at how fast it travels, but it still manages to amaze me.

My time here has been surreal….



Things I will miss about Rome:



1. Having easy access to wonderful places (Athens, Pompeii, Capri, Switzerland, just to name a few…) at such a low rate.

2. The intricate detail on the building surrounding me.

3. The rich history in so many beautiful buildings and ruins.

4. The FOOD. Yum, yum yum.

5. The Fountains. There isn’t much better than sitting by a fountain on a gorgeous day in Rome.

6. The Villa Borghese, and all it’s beauty, largeness, and confusion.

7. Being able to see amazing artwork (like the works of Caravaggio) in person.

8. The Weather. I am NOT excited to come to the freezing tundra that is the Midwest.

9. The Inspiration this place gives me. This place shines a light on my mind and reveals itself in my cooking, my music, my art, and more.

10. Simply being outside my box and doing something new and exciting. It’s wonderful

11. Being able to get away a little while… it made me think a lot about myself and

who I want to be and where I want to be, and everything. I don’t know how or why, but this place has managed to change me a little bit. Hopefully it’s for the better.





Things I won’t miss about Rome:



1. Angry old ladies! They need to chill, and stop starring at me and judging, and yelling at me in rapid Italian. It get's old, ladies. Real old.

2. Being away from my Family and Friends. Eh, not ok.

3. Personal Space, or lack there-of.

4. Blatant Stares—and often more---from creeper men. It seems I am a creeper magnet. I’m not a fan.

5. Pickpockets. Don’t EVEN get me started.



The good definitely outweighs the bad by far, and I hope to return someday.

London again tomorrow, then home on Tuesday! I am excited to give my family one giant hug...



Love,



Pj

Venice, It's about time I talk about you...

I reaaaally am excited to write about Greece.

I just got back today, and it is by far my favorite place I've been to...ever. However, making up for lack of blogging is quite important so I will proceed with a few ramblings and a photo attack of epic proportions of the beautiful Venice!

Melissa and I traveled to Venice and met up with another friend of mine from school, Gaby. I was blessed to be able to see the beautiful Venice with two beautiful people. This city is SO unique because of the water, water everywhere! I've never seen any place like it!


water alley! how cool.


Realto Bridge.

This place was, for a lack of a better word....enchanting. It was so amazing how the whole city just seemed to float on this body of water.



Venetian masques! I want to host a masquerade ball in Friley... It would be splendid.
Me taking a picture of Gaby taking a picture of me taking a picture of....


It's hard to take a bad picture of this place.
A night in Venice...
I see this boy with the frog everywhere on posters in Rome... I never knew what it was called or where it was until I got here. Apparently, it is creatively called "Boy With Frog" by Charles Ray.


How romantic... ha.



Take care!

Love,

Pj

This is Embarassing...

Really?

Have I REALLY not updated in almost a month?

How Disappointing.

Meanwhile, I've been traveling around Europe.

I know it's a little sad that I'm updating about my North Field Trip, when I've already had my South Field trip that was a month later...but I assume you'll be okay :)


We were forewarned about the Nastiness that is Naples. They were right...but the pizza there was utterly DELICIOUS. only 1.5 euros for a pizza slice way to large for me to eat... I don't even know what was on it...but it was more delicious than any of the pizza I've had in Rome...ever. That's saying alot. The amount of pizza I've had since stepping on Italian ground is mind-boggling. I wish I had a picture, but I was too busy having the most delicious pizza I've ever had. Anyways, Naples kindof smelled...apparently some of my classmates got harassed by some rude Napolians...we visited a museum with some Old Pompeii stuff and called it a day and headed towards our next stop: Sorrento.





We ate at the most DELICIOUS restaurant. I realize i've almost only talked about food...but such is life. It was the first meal I had over my 10 euro limit and it was divine. 4 courses. Delicious. Wonderful.

In the middle of our stay in Sorrento, we made a trip to Capri!


Capri was too beautiful for words. We went on a chairlift, walked around and really just soaked in the beauty of this place.










Then...Pompeii!
Many years ago, when I was homeschooled and my mother taught us about Pompeii I never actually even thought I'd ever get to actually go there.

It was pretty cool to say the least.











I actually have walked the roads of Pompeii.

That fact still takes my breath away.



Venice, Parents Visit, Northern Field trip, still to come... but for now..homework.
The amount of homework they give is here is absurd. I'm just putting that out there.
However, It must be done.


Love,

Pj

I am an Original Masterpiece...

Sifting through old unread messages in my gmail account,
I came across a link that my adopted Uncle (Mr. Beckley) sent me.

http://www.tangle.com/view_video?viewkey=849dc7c803281df74bb2

It featured a skit about how difficult it would be to chisel out everything that is wrong and unGodly out of our lives. It got me thinking...how much would I have to "chisel" out in my life? Sometimes I worry if there would be anything left...

It's scary to think how much I would need to take out of what I consider "me". It's scary to see if anything recognizable of "me" would remain. The skit assured that what would be left would be an original masterpiece. The masterpiece that God intended for us to be when he created us.

I place "me" in quotation marks, because I wonder if this "me" I think I am is my old or new self, or some combination thereof? Have I truly died to my old self? Should I really hold onto these features or parts of what I have accepted to be my personality if they are not of God?

I feel that one of the biggest thing I struggle with when trying to get closer to God is fear of losing myself. I'm afraid that I won't be the Original Paula that I've grown to like over the years if I relinquish these bad things and personality traits in my life.

But if you really think about it...that's stupid. Why wouldn't I want to be a better me?
Why wouldn't I want to leave my old crappy self behind?







But I guess if it were easy, it wouldn't be that big of a deal.



Love,

Pj

Cribs....Roman Style

Finally, it's the long-awaited episode of Cribs! I finally got around to editing it...
I thought I'd give you all a chance to see where I stay here!

Love,

Pj



p.s. We made the beginning like that because when we first arrived at our apartment we couldnt get any of our keys to work (well, except actually mine...) we've now figured out how to jiggle and turn them so it only takes a minute or two to enter... And our buzzer doesn't work for our apartment, apparently...it instead connects to another one? oops..

O, Oded...

These past few days were a blur. As I mentioned in my previous entry,
Oded Ezer came here to spread some of his typographic knowledge by giving us assignments and lectures. I got really excited about this workshop because it was more open and allowed me to work with video! Print work becomes so dull to me now that Video has entered into my life...

Yesterday we were asked to create yet another letter. This time, we worked separately.
Each of us chose one letter, and had do choose a person whose name started with that letter. Then, we had to reflect that person's style, essence or look or personality in the letter form in 3-d. Also, we had to represent this 3-d typographic sculpture in 2-d as well.

I chose "O" and Oded for my personality. I wanted to convey his style of design work (how he chooses to peel off letter forms often) as well as his layered, frayed, and densely packed personality. It was a lot of time spent into both creating the letter and the video. I presented this morning, My project and video went over really well... here it is: